Electronic Toll Road to Ease the Road Much Traveled Canada's New Highway 407 Will Be the First Toll Road in the World without Toll Booths, the Government Says

Article excerpt

ONTARIO is opening its first toll road since the 19th century,
when private landowners were allowed to charge a fee to people
crossing muddy tracks on their property. This time, computers will
be collecting the tolls automatically.

The electronic highway - this one for cars and trucks, not
information - will be operated by a private company and financed
almost entirely with private funds. All of this from a so-called
socialist government in Ontario.

Already partially built, Highway 407 travels east-west just
above the boundary of Metropolitan Toronto. The road is 43 miles
long and is designed to take pressure from the 12-lane Highway 401,
especially the 20 mile stretch that runs through the middle of
Toronto. Every rush hour, and usually all day during the week, the
12 lanes are clogged.

"Highway 401 handles about a million trips a day," says David
Guscott, deputy minister of transportation with the Ontario
government. "It is the busiest freeway in North America."
Whither the road

The highway will connect new communities north of Toronto,
running from Markham - Canada's silicon valley with the highest per
capita income in the country - to Mississauga, a city of half a
million people just west of Toronto.

The government has spent $300 million (Canadian; US$217 million)
on the highway, but decided to seek $1 billion in private funding
when it could not afford to build the road fast enough.

"At the rate we were going, it would have taken 20 years," Mr.
Guscott says. "Now it'll be open by 1998, maybe sooner."

This is the first toll road in the world that will not have any
toll booths, according to the government.

"Because we wanted the traffic to move, we didn't want any
slowdowns at toll booths," Guscott says. "The system will be
accessible to everybody, but there will be a price break for people
who use electronic transponders."
Two ways to collect tolls

Two systems for toll collection will be used on the new highway:

* Each time a car drives on the highway, its license plate will
be photographed. (There already exists an automatic system used by
the police to detect speeding cars with radar and photograph their
license plates as they pass. …